This sample video clip from Total Training focuses on how to work with Smart Objects in Photoshop CS3.

In this Photoshop CS3 video tutorial you will learn the following:
 How to create Smart Objects from scratch.
 How to convert a raster object into a Smart Object.
 How to convert multiple objects into a single Smart Object.
[click on the screenshot below to launch the video]

Before I get started, I’d like to point out to any users of Photoshop 5.0 or later that Effects in Photoshop Elements are not layer effects. They are prepackaged actions that come with the program (Elements does not have an Actions palette).
     By watching how effects/actions do what they do, you can learn a great deal about how to use Elements creatively on your own.
     In this tutorial, I’m going to make you work a little bit. To see the results, you’ll have to apply the effects. I’m not going to show them to you. I will translate for you, and tell you exactly what to do, but you’ll want to be looking at your Elements window as you read along.

Here we are, then. All set with our mask on the layer where we need it. A lot of trouble, but you’ll see, when you work with the mask, that it’s worth it.
     Click on the mask thumbnail (the white square on the masked layer). Any edits made now will be to the mask, and not the image. Confirm that you are in mask edit mode by checking the icon next to the eyeball.

The Free Transform command lets you apply transformations (move, rotate, scale, skew, distort, perspective and wrap) in one continuous operation. Instead of choosing different commands, you simply hold down a key on your keyboard to switch between transformation types.

Note: If you are transforming a shape or entire path, the Transform command becomes the Transform Path command. If you are transforming multiple path segments (but not the entire path), the Transform command becomes the Transform Points command.

Please note that when transforming a bitmap image (versus a shape or path), it becomes slightly less sharp each time you commit a transformation. Therefore, performing multiple commands before applying the cumulative transformation is preferable to applying each transformation separately.

Learn the fine art of isolating and preserving delicate and complex shadows for transplantation to exotic new backgrounds. Mark Galer reveals how to introduce a world of exciting textures to your ever so subtle... not... studio tabletop.

Humble beginnings – take one flower, a desk lamp and some white paper.

The flower for this tutorial was photographed (using a Fuji FinePix) on a cold winters morning in Victoria whilst the sand (shot on Kodachrome film) hails from the Great Indian Desert in Rajasthan. Unlikely bedfellows, but with a little craft the two can lie together comfortably within the same frame – but only if the subtle shadow (created by a not-so-subtle 75 watt globe and a couple of pieces of white paper) is captured with all of its subtlety and delicately transplanted to its new home in the desert. This is how...!