This is about the very basics of improving landscape photography. For years I've been taking rather bland photos of both natural landscapes and cityscapes and then pushing those pixels to bits in Photoshop. One of the most important things to learn in Photoshop is selecting areas of pictures. For … [Read more...]
A free and easy way to give up smoking
Fanfare! I have just published a new website detailing the method I used to quit cigarettes. I started smoking when I was 18 and very quickly developed a 20 a day habit. I immediately noticed a dip in my health – not to mention an increase in my asthma. But still I soldiered on. I tried to give … [Read more...]
The future of work
I'm at school at the moment. In WC1, hiding in between the Islington's Lloyd, Wilmington and Granville Squares is Framfab LBi, Europe's largest web agency, where I'm working now, in a building that used to be a school. And it actually feels like a school. The staircases, the rooms, the panelled … [Read more...]
Flash … no flash
Here's another thing that I hate about doing websites ... Flash. When I first set eyes on it I thought it was great but for me it hasn't really lived up to expectations. The problem is not everyone has the Flash Player installed in their browser – not everyone can see it! And it is bad for SEO – … [Read more...]
Cutting out
How do you cut out a high resolution photo? It depends on the picture of course. If you are cutting out a product – a mobile phone, say – then use the pen tool in Photoshop. Blow the image up big and follow the edge one or two pixels in using Bézier curves. Bézier is a town in the south of France … [Read more...]
More about SEO, Google and recriprocal links
This article is massively out-of-date and virtually everything said in it is now incorrect but it is useful to show how quickly things can change in this area! If you now type "freelance graphic designer and artworker in London" into Yahoo! I'm number one. In Google I'm hundred and fifty … [Read more...]
Overprint nightmare solved
Here's a problem I've been getting a lot recently ... and a solution! Elements not printing out or printing out darker or fainter than they should. Why? The element – beit type or a box or anything – has been set to overprint. Overprinting is great. Black type on a tinted or coloured … [Read more...]
Making and using PDFs
How do you make PDFs? Direct from an application or by distilling from a saved eps or postscript file? Everyone has their favourite way, but whichever method is used there always seems to be some unforeseen errors creeping into the final file occasionally Why are some elements obscured behind … [Read more...]