Archive for January, 2005
Prerequisites: This tutorial assumes that you are able to open an image in Photoshop, are a fluent user of your chosen operating system, and are using Photoshop 7. All screenshots are from Photoshop 7 on Windows XP.
Shortcuts: When there is a Photoshop Shortcut available, I will include it after the action in parentheses.
What does it mean to “White Point” an image? It is common practice to take photographs without proper lighting. As a result often the image will either be over-exposed (for which there is no remedy) or it will have a gray cast due to under-exposure (for which there is no true fix, but Photoshop will allow us to fake it). White Pointing an image refers to the process of making the white areas of a photo truly white or correcting the highlights in an image.
Before and After
This photo courtesy of Helen Condon of Adirondack Rug Braiding, designer of high quality hand braided wool rugs.
The Task Step by Step
- Open an Image in Photoshop.
- If the photo is a JPEG, save as a Photoshop file (PSD).
- Create new layer from the background.
- Rename the new layer.
- Adjust the white point via the Curves Tool. [Image 1]
- Save the image.
Open an Image
See my post, “Cropping an Image in Photoshop 7” on how to do this if you are unclear.
If JPEG, Save As Photoshop Format (PSD)
In order to protect your image from JPEG compression artifacts, it is best to save the open JPEG image as a new file in PSD format as discussed in my post, “Cropping an Image in Photoshop 7.”
Create a New Layer from the Background
- Open the Layers Palette (Window > Layers) if it is not visible [Image 2].
- Drag the background layer to the Create a New Layer button and release it. [Image 3]
- Now there should be a new layer named something like “Background copy.”
Rename the New Layer
It is a good practice to develop a naming system related to the purpose of the layer.
- Rename your layer by double clicking the text label and typing something for the purposes of this exercise like “White Point.” [Image 4]
- Press Enter to commit the change when you are finished typing.
Adjust the White Point with the Curves Tool
The Curves Tool [Image 1] is an excellent way to manipulate images. It is also easy to overdo the effects produced by the Curves Tool. Rather than to explain what the Curves Tool does, I want to give you a simple method to White Point your image. Feel free to experiment at much as you like.
Note: A good rule of thumb for natural results is to use only one point on the upper right of the grid. The more points used to divert the direction of the line, the less realistic your manipulation will be. This is a fun way to create low-quality “rock star” effects.
- Open the Curves Tool by selecting Images > Adjustments > Curves [Ctrl M].
- As shown in Image 1, click the diagonal line and slowly drag it up and to the left until you reduce the gray cast of the image. You can click and drag anywhere on this line for further refinements. However, if one point does not do the job, you will not be likely to succeed gracefully.
- When you are satisfied with your results, click OK to commit the changes.
Save the Image
Before going on to something else, save your image by selecting File > Save [Ctrl S]. If you like your results but want to try for a different effect, start again by creating a new layer from the background and working through the tutorial again.
Recommended Resources
Discussion and Help
If you have questions while working on this tutorial, want to add some insightful comments that might help other readers, or want to ask Harvey a question, post a comment below.cities maps google street viewsearch ask.com engine2008 crv honda exllloyds tsb.combox orange reviews ps3number ga routing bank america ofliverpool news skyprecautions earthquake safetydean wiki howardtarget pharmacy 4 Map
January 29th, 2005
Prerequisites: This tutorial assumes that you are able to open an image in Photoshop, are a fluent user of your chosen operating system, and are using Photoshop 7. All screenshots are from Photoshop 7 on Windows XP.
Shortcuts: When there is a Photoshop Shortcut available, I will include it after the action in parentheses.
What does it mean to “crop” an image? When a photograph is not composed properly or you wish to change the composition of a photograph by eliminating portions of the image, the easiest tool for the job is Photoshop’s Crop Tool.
Note: By default, the Toolbar has tool tips (pop-up messages describing the tool) enabled. If you mouse over the symbols on the toolbar, a small tool tip will appear informing you of the name of the tool. This can be helpful if you are looking for a tool and cannot remember what the symbol looked like from a previous Photoshop session.
The Task Step by Step
- Open an Image in Photoshop.
- Save it as a new image [Image 1]. (This will protect the original composition, since cropping is a destructive form of image editing.)
- Select the Crop Tool [Image 2].
- Create your new composition with the marquee.
- Adjust the shape of the selection using the handles provided.
- Rotate the selection if desired.
- When pleased with your selection, press Enter or Return to complete the task.
Open an Image
Though for the purposes of this tutorial I assume you know how to open a file, I will go over the steps briefly.
- Select File > Open, (Ctrl O) Then browse to a location on your drive that contains an image file you want to edit.
- Once selected, the photo will open in a new Photoshop window.
Save as a New Image
In order to protect your original image, it is best to save the open image as a new file. This means that your destructive edits will be performed on the new image and the old will be untouched.
- Select File > Save As, (Shift Ctrl S) and browse to the location on your drive where you want to save the new image.
- In the “Save As” Dialog Box [Image 1], select the File Name field and type a new name.
- Below the File Name field, select the Format field and select Photoshop (PSD) from the list. The reason for this file format rather than JPEG is that when repeatedly saving a JPEG image, even in an advanced editor like Photoshop, compression artifacts are introduced into the image degrading the quality noticeably.
- When you have completed steps 2 and 3, click the Save button to finish.
Select the Crop Tool
Choose the Crop Tool [Image 2] by clicking on it.
Create Your New Composition with the Marquee
- Click and drag to place the Crop Marquee on your image [Image 3]. The area outside the marquee will be darkened; this area will be removed from your image when you complete the crop.
- Adjust the marquee by moving the handles [Image 3].
Rotate the Marquee
Rotate the marquee if desired. This is the most exacting part. You must pull your mouse pointer away from the handles a short distance. When you see the rotate symbol 
, click and drag to rotate the marquee.
Though you might find this frustrating at first, play with the mouse and try different distances from the marquee until you see the mouse pointer change to the rotate symbol
Sometimes rotating the marquee can alter a photograph’s composition more than you might expect. Perhaps this aspect of cropping a photograph could be referred to as taking a photo within a photo!
Commit the Crop
Having selected a new composition you like, press Enter to commit the Crop.
Recommended Resources
Discussion and Help
If you have questions while working on this tutorial, want to add some insightful comments that might help other readers, or want to ask Harvey a question, post a comment below.
January 28th, 2005
A Review of Shari Thurow’s Book, Search Engine Visibility
If you have a product or service to sell online, the most important competitive advantage you can leverage is carefully targeted content. It is not glitzy advertising or high-tech design techniques using the latest technology though I am convinced that this too is important. Shari Thurow’s book, Search Engine Visibility, is a reference book that I constantly turn to as I plan each new web site’s architecture and content.
As a consumer of web design services and possibly of web content services provided by a writer, you may benefit from reading this book prior to hiring a design firm. Ultimately, you will own and benefit from your web site. It is best that you have a clear plan in mind for the content you wish to deliver to your customers or clients. Much of this book is directed specifically to web designers, but there some key concepts of which I want my clients to be aware.
Shari does an excellent job of analyzing the foundation of a successful web site. There are basically three components of this success:
- The text component includes the selection of relevant keywords and how to structure your web site around those keywords and phrases via natural themes extracted during your research. It also includes the placement of keywords and correct usage of title and Meta tags.
- The link component is largely related to your web site’s architecture, or the way pages and folders on your site relate to each other via navigation hyperlinks. Shari discusses best practices that increase a web site’s usability from the standpoint of search engines and of site visitors alike.
- The popularity component refers to the importance assigned to your web site by search engines. A more popular web site will appear above less important sites in a search engine’s results. This component is affected by how well you and your web designer have implemented the other two components, but also is highly influenced by incoming links from other web sites. Some of the most important incoming links come from web directories such as Yahoo!, Looksmart, and the Open Directory.
Though I rarely recommend a book wholeheartedly to my clients and peers, this volume definitely makes the cut. It surpassed my expectations and I have seen results by following Shari’s sage advice. While room remains for more in-depth books on this topic or on related sub-topics, this book is an excellent introduction to search engine visibility.
Title: Search Engine Visibility, First Edition
Author: Shari Thurow
Publisher: New Riders Publishing
ISBN: 0735712565
Date: January 2003
Format: Paperback
Pages: 297
Cover Price: USD: $29.99 CDN: $46.99 UK: �23.50
Other Search Engine Visibility Resources:
January 22nd, 2005
Introducing Jill Whalen
Below is a helpful SEO question and answer session from Jill Whalen of High Rankings. Since I thought all the issues discussed in her article, Dispelling Some SEO Myths, would be of interest to my readers and clients, I have published the entire article. Please read on to dispell many of your Search Engine Optimization myths! Jill responds to some common misconceptions voiced by Pat. How many of these misconceptions do you share?
Pat’s Question
I have been doing website development for a number of years, mostly for a big organization where optimizing for an intranet didn’t mean as much as it would for the Internet. So I’ve read books and bought SE CD’s to bring higher rankings, and it has helped!
I have not completely read all your information, but I was wondering if you have things in your literature where you have certain guidelines, like using so many characters/words in the title, or so many characters/words in your description, or repeating keywords so many times in your main content? Everyone seems to have different ideas, but I’d like to see where someone has these kind of guidelines and results to back them up.
I also have the following questions:
- Is manually submitting each site better?
- Once submitted …do you keep submitting …if so how often? (So you don’t get kicked out.)
- The Microsoft submit supposedly submits to hundreds of search engines and directories. Is this good or bad (the number of SE’s submitted to)? I heard the more the better …but there are some pretty cheesy search engines out there!
- What about stop words …do you cover this?
- I heard you should leave out commas between keywords …any truth to this?
- If you are indexed in the Open Directory (DMOZ) do you re-submit to directories?
- Are there truly reputable submission companies…and might I add …that get results …proven results?
- What about the Google AdWords program?
- One more thing…SEO stands for search engine optimization, correct?
- I also have a few sites that I’m just starting to build, and they are one-page sites… a separate domain for each site. These sites are linked to a main site, as a 2nd way to find the main site. No trying to mislead anyone, just trying to work off separate keywords and types of products. Are these okay?
Jill’s Response
When I first read Pat’s email and questions, I almost thought it was a joke email, because it was as if Pat had found every SEO myth ever discussed, and then asked me about them! So I wrote Pat back and basically said that he/she had obviously gotten ahold of some really old info and that he/she should erase it all from his/her memory bank and start fresh by reading my articles.
Pat wrote back very quickly and again asked if I would at least answer some of the questions posed. I realized that Pat really was not joking, and that if he/she had these questions from reading some bad info that is still out there somewhere, many of you may have similar ones.
So here’s what I wrote back to Pat:
Dear Pat,
There are no specific guidelines for number of anything in SEO (which, yes, stands for search engine optimization). There’s no number of words that is optimal in the tags, or in the copy, or in anything. Every page is unique and the right number for one page won’t be the same as for another page. SEO is really more art than science, when done correctly. (See “The Art of SEO”
http://www.highrankings.com/issue105.htm#seo.) Many people are looking for a magic bullet or formula that will propel their sites to the top, but there just isn’t one. And even if you found one that worked today, chances are it wouldn’t tomorrow.
Let me answer some of your questions and you’ll see what I mean:
Is manually submitting each site better?
You don’t actually need to submit your site at all to search engines — neither manually nor in an automated fashion. They all have spiders that “crawl” the Web and find all pages that exist, as long as there is a link to them from a page they already know about.
Once submitted …do you keep submitting …if so how often? (So
you don’t get kicked out.)
Never.
The Microsoft submit supposedly submits to hundreds of search
engines and directories.
It’s a waste of time and bandwidth.
Is this good or bad (the number of SE’s submitted to)?
It’s neither, just useless.
I heard the more the better …but there are some pretty cheesy
search engines out there!
“The more the better” is incorrect. There are only 4 major search databases that matter: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask Jeeves. Their databases power all of the other engines that make a difference.
What about stop words …do you cover this?
There’s no such thing as stop words. You need to use all the words it makes sense for you to use regardless of whether someone somewhere has classified it as a “stop word.”
I heard you should leave out commas between keywords …any truth to this?
It makes no difference. The Meta keyword tag won’t actually help your site rank highly for the keywords that are important to it, and commas don’t matter as they’re treated as a space anyway. Yahoo does know about the words and phrases you put in this tag, and they recommend using commas to separate your phrases. I’ve always used commas as well, but again, it’s not going to matter for the keyword phrases that matter the most anyway, so don’t worry about it.
If you are indexed in the Open Directory (DMOZ) do you re-submit to directories?
You can submit to directories one time (not search engines, but directories). If you’re already listed in DMOZ, there’s no need to resubmit to them, but there’s nothing wrong with submitting to other directories that are unrelated to DMOZ.
Are there truly reputable submission companies …and might I add…that get results …proven results?
No there are not, because submitting is unnecessary and useless, so submission companies are useless as well. Please note that I’m not talking about paid-inclusion companies here. They are a different breed than submission companies. For some sites, paid-inclusion companies may be useful. Submission companies — no. Paid-inclusion companies — maybe, depending on your needs.
What about the Google AdWords program?
Google Adwords is a great program if you know how to use it correctly so that every dollar you put in pays off. (See today’s interview with Kevin Lee for more info on PPC landing pages.)
I also have a few sites that I’m just starting to build, and they are one-page sites.
One-page sites will have a very hard time doing well in the search engines because it’s doubtful they will provide enough useful information to users, and thus search engines will be unlikely to take much notice. That said, they could do okay if enough other sites find them worthwhile and link to them, but that will rarely happen.
It sounds like your one-page sites are simply “doorway domains,” which are definitely not a good idea.
Hope this helps clear up a few things for you. Now seriously, please go read my articles and clear your mind of all the SEO myths that you’ve picked up!
Good luck!
Jill Whalen of High Rankings is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and host of the free weekly High Rankings Advisor search engine marketing newsletter.
She specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations and seminars. Jill’s handbook, “The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines” teaches business owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines
January 20th, 2005
A possible private CMS with design flexibility.
Continue Reading January 18th, 2005
Flexibility, Power, Open Source, PHP/MySQL
I am searching for a CMS that will allow me enough flexibility to design a front-end that does not look like a blocky portal, but also has enough power to provide events management, user control and private document delivery, and a tool to manage a substantial business directory grouped by category and subcategory. On top of all this, the tool I hope to find will be well documented enough to allow myself or another developer to extend the business directory table structure.
The kicker is that I believe strongly in standards compliant XHTML and CSS and want to develop on the PHP/MySQL platform. Few good CMS systems generate standards compliant code even if they have the flexibility I desire.
Some of What I’ve Found
To contribute something to others in my predicament, I’ll list some of the excellent tools I have found in my research:
CMS Made Simple is relatively lightweight completely open source and free. It also clearly separates CSS and XHTML presentation and content.
Xaraya is a hybrid XML/PHP content management system that looks very flexible and seems to have a strong developer community. I’m interested in learning more about it.
CMSimple looks ideal for small to medium size business Web sites that need to manage pages as opposed to blogs and other interactive media. There’s a bit of a problem with content/presentation separation and the php code is a bit messy, so I’d use caution. If you are HTML savvy, you could check out the barebones, Quate CMS.
TYPO3 is a midsize CMS with enough complexity and as a result, flexibility, to adapt to diverse content needs. With some work, it will allow designers to produce standards compliant XHTML templates.
WordPress, with the release of version 1.5, is now a CMS capable of producing pages and blog posts. Though I doubt it has the power to push a large web site, it could easily handle a small web site’s content management processes. The best thing about WordPress is its incredibly easy to master templating/theming system that allows for almost unfettered creativity in design.
Etomite: free, easily customizable tool that generates valid code. I lean towards this tool because it is slim and easily customized. However, the events snippet does not generate valid code. Etomite does not have an adequate system for serving password protected content.
Mambo: free, powerful, and customizable tool that does not generate valid code … yet.
Drupal generates valid code and has an open and flexible templating system. I have not used it enough to be sure of the limits of its flexibility, but initial exploration is promising.
PHPWebsite: Open source, free content management tool that generates valid code. This is a real CMS with a great deal of power. However, I have not seen any good design work done with this CMS as the back end. In addition, I have not yet been able to determine if I will be able to develop the directory I need within its structure.
Related Web Sites
January 15th, 2005
While doing some consulting regarding software for a medium sized business, I was asked a very relevant question: �If you develop our software and disappear in a few years, how will I get support or further development???? It is wise to ask this question before making a major purchase such as a web site or business management software.
Continue Reading January 12th, 2005
Consuming the NOAA RSS weather conditions feed with Bigbold RSS digest.
Continue Reading January 6th, 2005
A New Year’s thank you to clients past, present and future for your support of Design Delineations!
Change…
An overarching characteristic of 2004 was the pace of change: continuous and rapid. At the beginning of 2004, Design Delineations officially lost its status as a home business with our entry into office #7 of the St. Lawrence County Chamber’s quarters. The move provided me with room to stretch my legs, think without interruptions from my enthusiastic youngsters (who by the way, are my greatest supporters) and get access to office equipment beyond my small budget’s constraints. It also prompted a refocusing of the business from graphic design for print publications to web and visual identity design.
New Clients
This past year has prompted growth in the Design Delineations portfolio. New clients were added to the Design Delineations roster in 2004, largely without a marketing strategy in place. Word of mouth has so far worked in our favor and continues to be our strongest method of marketing … perhaps largely because I have not had time to develop other marketing avenues. This is a classic case of, “Do as I say, not as I do!”
Technically Speaking…
Technically speaking, 2004 saw us shift from a focus on HTML table based web design techniques to XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) layouts. While creating code that is less cluttered and more easily parsed by search engines, this has the added benefit of being easily maintained and providing more control over the stylistic unity of a web site. For example, we can now make changes sitewide to our clients’ typestyles, background colors and images, and even to the behavior of hyperlinks.
What’s Coming Next…
Since we are still a small business, I am sure 2005 will see additional growth and perhaps more focusing of the Design Delineations mission. I plan to develop this web log with content for both my clients and peers. It will function as an outlet for my many internal conversations regarding web design aesthetics, technology, web content, and visual identity design. Stay posted and feel free to suggest a topic!
Again, many thanks to my clients and supporters for a growing and profitable 2004!
January 1st, 2005
