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Selecting & Extracting Hair - Extraction Tips One of the most challenging montage or masking jobs in the profession of post-production editing is the hair lift. When the model has long flowing hair and the subject needs to change location many post-production artists call in sick. Get it wrong and, just like a bad wig, it shows. Extract filters, Magic Erasers and Tragic Extractors don’t even get us close. Portrait image by Dan Stainsby The first secret step must be completed before you even press the shutter on the camera. Your number one essential step for success is to first shoot your model against a white backdrop, sufficiently illuminated so that it is captured as white rather than gray. This important aspect of the initial image capture ensures that the resulting hair transplant is seamless and undetectable. The post-production is the easy bit - simply apply the correct sequence of editing steps and the magic is all yours. This is not brain surgery but follo

It would be very difficult and time consuming to separate this image from the background because of the complexity and fine detail involved with the feathers on the woman's headdress. This tutorial will focus on using Channels to help mask out complex objects with clean edges. This technique will also save you a lot of time. The initial goal is to separate the feathers from the pink background on the left side of the face, and there are lots of places where tiny bits of pink are showing through the feathers. We will use Alpha Channels, Quick Masks, Levels, Brushes and Color Range. STEP 1 - Make A Duplicate Layer Make a duplicate layer of the image. This way the original is preserved on the background and we are working on a duplicated layer. Hide the background by clicking off its visibility icon. Choose Select> Color Range from the Menu. When the Color Range Dialog box open, choose the Left Eye Dropper tool and click on the background color in the image window (pink). You

With Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in Windows XP, you can connect one computer to the Internet, then share the Internet service with several computers on your home or small office network. The Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP Professional will automatically provide all of the network settings you need to share one Internet connection with all the computers in your network. Each computer can use programs such as Internet Explorer and Outlook Express as if they were directly connected to the Internet. You should not use this feature in an existing network with Windows 2000 Server domain controllers, DNS servers, gateways, DHCP servers, or systems configured for static IP addresses. Enabling ICS The ICS host computer needs two network connections. The local area network connection, automatically created by installing a network adapter, connects to the computers on your home or small office network. The other connection, using a 56k modem, ISDN, DSL, or cable modem, connects th

Times really have changed! Only a few years ago it was par for the course to travel across town (or the country) lugging a heavy portfolio case full of treasured works, or mailing them to a faceless stranger. There was the fear of damage, or worse still, hearing the words, "Can you just leave it here with us for a few days," not knowing what will happen to them as soon as we turn our backs. I have a hunch that the printed portfolio will be with us well into the future. However there is a growing trend to put a portfolio on the web. This has obvious advantages; Your site is up 24/7, it's cheap, can be viewed by anyone around the world and the potential audience is huge. Since launching PhotoshopCAFE.com almost 5 years ago, over 3 million people from around the world have viewed my portfolio, this would be impossible without the web. Photoshop makes it very easy to build an online portfolio. I will show you how in just a few steps and we can do it all from the File Br

File sharing . Is the sharing of a disk or printer between computers . If a disk or folder is shared, everyone on the network can access it. You have the ability to set password and permissions for the shared disk or folder for security therefore Windows XP tries to protect you from some potential security risks Right click the disk or folder that you want to share and select Sharing and Security. NOTE: The first time you do this the Networking wizard will appear ..CLOSE IT..:- The Wizard automatically enables the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) to prevent other Internet users from accessing your shared disks and folders. Enabling ICF is a good idea if you connect directly to the Internet through a dial-up, DSL, or cable modem. But it's a terrible idea if you connect to the Internet through your LAN, using a software router (like Internet Connection Sharing) or a hardware router, since it will block File and Printer Sharing.  The disk or folder that you share, al

Under Windows 98, Me, or 2000 there was an option in the shutdown dialog box to enter the computer into hibernation (where all the content of the RAM is copied to the hard disk). The shutdown dialog box of Windows XP doesn't offer any longer the hibernation button. Some users may get confused about how to enable the hibernation mode. If this mode is supported by your motherboard (ACPI) you have to do the following: Click Start and Shut Down, Point the standby button and maintain the shift key pushed, A new hibernation button appears: click it while still holding the shift key: voila your PC will hibernate.

The Lens correction filter is truly amazing, being able to repair all kinds of distortions. Not only can it remedy the bulging created by a wide-angle lens, and the weird distortion created by taking a photo too close to subject – such as the bulging nose of a friend – but it can also straighten images taken at angles and make them appear as if they were shot straight on. To demonstrate, let's take an image that suffers from many problems, and correct it. STEP 1 - Open The Filter Open an affected image and choose Filter: Distort: Lens Correction. Figure 1 shows the filter's dialogue box. Notice the grid that assists us in lining things up. STEP 2 - Straighten The Image The first job is to straighten the image. It's impossible to fix all the other angles if the image is not straight first. Choose the straighten tool from the left side of the dialogue box. Click-&-drag across the image to define the new horizon. Try to follow a horizontal line in the i

Scandisk is not a part of Windows XP - instead you get the improved CHKDSK. You can use the Error-checking tool to check for file system errors and bad sectors on your hard disk. 1: Open My Computer, and then select the local disk you want to check. 2: On the File menu, click Properties. 3: On the Tools tab, under Error-checking, click Check Now. 4: Under Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box. All files must be closed for this process to run. If the volume is currently in use, a message box will appear prompting you to indicate whether or not you want to reschedule the disk checking for the next time you restar

Want to use an on screen keyboard? Well it is this simple - Click on the start button and select run. Then type in osk in the box and click OK.

If you have to reinstall Windows XP you normally will have to reactivate too. Well not anymore.  Just copy wpa.dbl after you activated the first time.  It is located in the WINDOWS\system32 folder.  Now if you reinstall Windows XP just copy the file back and you're up and running again.

When speed counts, the keyboard is still king. Almost all the actions and commands you can perform with a mouse you can perform faster using combinations of keys on your keyboard. These simple keyboard shortcuts can get you where you want to go faster than several clicks of a mouse. You'll work faster on spreadsheets and similar documents, too, because you won't lose your place switching back and forth between mouse and keys. Here are some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts: Copy. CTRL+C Cut. CTRL+X Paste. CTRL+V Undo. CTRL+Z Delete. DELETE Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin. SHIFT+DELETE Copy selected item. CTRL while dragging an item Create shortcut to se

Add Album Art to any Music Folder This is easily my favorite tip! One of the coolest new features in Windows XP is its album thumbnail generator, which automatically places the appropriate album cover art on the folder to which you are copying music (generally in WMA format). But what about those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as cdnow.com or amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder customize feature to display the proper image for each folder. But this takes time--you have to manually edit the folder properties for every single folder--and you will lose custom

There are a number of users who are noticing that their PC will no longer automatically power down/shut off without pressing the power off button on the computers unlike in Windows Me/95/2000. There could be a number of reasons for this - but the main one seems to be that ACPI is not enabled on the computer or in Windows XP. Here is how to try that out: Click - Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Power Options Tab Then click APM - Enable Advanced Power Management Support

this ones simple: this is for broad band connections. I didn’t try it on dial up but might work for dial up. make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator". do not log on with any account that just has administrator privileges. start - run - type gpedit.msc expand the "local computer policy" branch expand the "administrative templates" branch expand the "network branch" Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window in right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting on setting tab check the "enabled" item where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0 reboot if you want to but not necessary on s

To change drive letters (useful if you have two drives and have partitioned the boot drive, but the secondary drive shows up as "D") Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, Disk Management, then right-click the partition whose name you want to change (click in the white area just below the word "Volume") and select "change drive letter and paths."  From here you can add, remove or change drive letters and paths to the partition.

Enter the following in the registry : [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/MediaPlayer/Settings/MP3/Encoding]   "LowRate"=dword:0000dac0 "MediumRate"=dword:0000fa00 "MediumHighRate"=dword:0001f400 "HighRate"=dword:0002ee00 This corresponds to 56, 64, 128 and 192 Kbps. You can change this to your liking using the following dword hex values : 320 Kbps = dword:0004e200 256 Kbps = dword:0003e800 224 Kbps = dword:00036b00 192 Kbps = dword:0002ee00 160 Kbps = dword:00027100 128 Kbps = dword:0001f400 112 Kbps = dword:0001b580 64 Kbps = dword:0000fa00 56 Kbps = dword:0000dac0

Easy way- Click on or cut and paste link below: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/cleartypeactivate.htm?fname=%20&fsize=   or  Right click on a blank area of the Desktop and choose Properties  Click on the Appearance Tab; Click effects Check the box: Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts In the drop down box select: Clear Type

Here you can find a Description of the things which are done by the Program or you can manually change the following settings to have the same effect: MediaPlayer: Don't Acquire licenses automatically - Open the MediaPlayer-Extras - Options... Click the tab 'Player', look at the groupbox 'Internetsettings' and uncheck 'Acquire licenses automatically'. MediaPlayer: No identification by internetsites - Open the MediaPlayer-Extras-Options... Click the tab ‘Player’, look at the groupbox 'Internet settings' and uncheck 'Allow identification by internet sites' MediaPlayer: don't download codecs automatically - Open

The following hacks cover some of the methods most commonly used for creating selection masks. They are presented here in one place for your consumption. Feast on them from time to time when you feel hungry. • Switching Lasso Tool Modes. When you use the Lasso tool to draw freehand selections, press Alt (Windows), Opt (Mac OS) to draw in straight lines. To revert to freehand, raise the tool modifier key after a click. • Switching Polygonal Lasso Tool Modes. When you use the Polygonal Lasso tool to draw straight lines, press Alt (Windows), Opt (Mac OS) to draw freehand. To revert to straight lines, raise the tool modifier key after a click. • Changing Sample Size for Magnetic Lasso Tool. When you use the Magnetic Lasso tool, use a large width for smooth areas and a small width for detailed areas. You can change the width of the sample area by using the square bracket keys or clicking the pen icon in the options bar if you use a pen and tablet. • Moving Selections. To move a se

First open - X:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo (it is hidden) where X is your drive letter and username is your username make and delete shortcuts to folders and devices at will

Summary: This document describes the steps you should take to create a Microsoft® Windows® XP driver for your device. To create a Windows XP device driver: Install the current Windows DDK. Read the system requirements and installation instructions in the stand-alone Getting Started HTML file supplied with the DDK. Read Getting Started with Windows Drivers. This document guides you through the planning and decision-making process involved in making a Windows device driver from design through distribution.  You should also look through the DDK documentation for device-type-specific information. The DDK documentation set has the following device-type-sp