cropping

crop

–noun

the cultivated produce of the ground, while growing or when gathered:

the wheat crop.

–verb

to cut off or mask the unwanted parts of a photograph.

Proper cropping as opposed to crappy cropping can make the difference between a decent photo and that garbage you usually post on your lame Facebook page. Nothing like a good crop. My Grampa who was a photographer always said …never pass up an opportunity to crop.

Cropping is like editing.

An editors’ job is to identify the crap and remove it. Crop it out.

Be the first one on your block to post your Disneyland pictures without all the dopey looking nobodies in the background who are breathing your air and wrecking your “memories”. They’re all a bunch of worthless knuckle dragging bums anyway so why not eliminate them from your world and pretend they don’t exist (like your weirdo uncle with the lunchmeat fetish.)

Press the C key on your keyboard to get the Crop Tool.

Drag out a box and adjust it by grabbing those tiny little boxes (they’re called nodes) and adjust the box. Press Return (Im on a Mac) to apply the crop. Simple, just the way you like it.

Now go have another cocktail and enjoy your undeserved sense of accomplishment.

BTW –that old man in the sample is a survivor of Pearl Harbor.

If you don’t know what that means, go away and never come back to my blog.

Or… Google it and learn something besides what’s ”hot”.

Then you may return.

Thank you.

smart blur

The smart blur is useful for quick removal of unsightly wrinkles, pimples, freckles, nose hairs, scars, scratches and yes…warts. Go to Filter / Blur / Smart Blur and set your quality to medium, mode to normal and goof around with the other 2 sliders who’s names (radius & threshold) mean nothing to me but sound real cool, until you get Amy to look like a human being. Seriously, if you want a miracle go to church –Photoshop is only so powerful.

Welcome to Slick Mick's Tips & Tricks

Do you have Photoshop on your computer and very little idea what to do with it?

Don’t know the difference between a pixel and a pica?

Ever wonder how to remove that nose wart from Grandma’s portrait and make it look convincing?

Ever wasted an entire afternoon, trying to figure out why a postage stamp sized photo of your cousins ugly baby can’t be “enlarged” to the size of a freeway billboard without becoming so fuzzy it would have to be viewed from outer space to seem natural.

Maybe you’ve always wanted to be a graphic artist and feel your nearly there because you stumbled across “Word Art” in your text editing program and read somewhere that yellow and blue “go good together.”

If so and you’re looking for solutions to these and other profound and enigmatic mysteries, then read on silly mortal.

It’s been suggested to me that I write this blog to share some of the tips & tricks I’ve discovered, invented and stolen over the past years while passing myself off as graphic designer.

So put down your remote control, brewski, ham sandwich, porn, or whatever you have in your hand right now - and learn something new, so next time you need to remove that bong from the background of your vacation hotel picture, you’ll know what to do.